Project description
Blood biomarker to categorise mortality risks
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is responsible for a high number of deaths worldwide. A quarter of these deaths is related to ventricular arrhythmias, which can cause sudden cardiac death (SCD). Cardiologists use many tools for the diagnosis of arrhythmias including an echocardiogram that calculates blood ejection from the left ventricle (LVEF). In cases where LVEF is more than 35 %, a costly cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) operation is suggested. However, even with normal levels of LVEF, 51 % of patients had SCD. The EU-funded STRICT project will test a new in vitro diagnostic (IVD) test that assesses blood levels of secretoneurin (SN), a biomarker related to ventricular arrhythmias. SN data will allow cardiologists to perform patient risk stratification.
Objective
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the no. 1 killer worldwide. 25% of all CVD mortality is caused by ventricular arrhythmias that lead to sudden cardiac death (SCD). The diagnosis of arrhythmias is difficult but crucial for accurate decision-making and patient survival. To assess the patient’s status, cardiologists currently ask: physical exams, some cardiac biomarkers data, an ECG (which may detect an arrythmia) and an echocardiogram to measure the blood ejection from the left ventricle (LVEF), since there is a correlation between LVEF and risk of ventricular arrhythmias. If LVEF is < 35%, the patient is eligible for implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) surgery, which costs at least 20K€. Still, around 51 % of victims of SCD have normal LVEF. In addition, 67% of all implemented ICDs are never activated because those patients were (unknowingly) at low-risk for arrhythmias, which represents a 1.3B€ overtreatment cost / year in the EU alone.
CardiNor is bringing to market a new in vitro diagnostic (IVD) test to measure blood levels of Secretoneurin (SN), a globally patented biomarker and the only one shown to be specifically linked to ventricular arrhythmias. With SN data, cardiologists will be able to stratify patients according to their risk as well as to pinpoint high-risk patients not identified by the current diagnostic regime, thus reducing health burden costs and saving lives.
CardiNor needs the SME Innovation Associate Programme to boost R&D activities within test maturation and effectively take it to TRL8. Currently, we do not have in-house expertise in biomedical device development or quality assurance. Therefore, we are looking to recruit an Innovation Associate. Acquiring these skills is important for CardiNor to maintain competitive advantage over coming years, positioning our company to high growth in the global CVD biomarkers market.
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Funding Scheme
CSA - Coordination and support actionCoordinator
0349 Oslo
Norway
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.